Breath (edition 2008)

The first half of this novel was devoted primarily to surfing. As a non-surfer not much of that made an impression on me. The remainder of the novel got into the meat of the "coming of age" story. I understood the impact that Eva had on Pikelet, but didn't quite see how her death lead to his falling apart in later years, when he had a wife and children of his own and hadn't seen or heard from Eva since he was a teenager. Just didn't quite make sense in my opinion. ( )

I loved this book. The surfing, the coming of age, the times of freedom. This just spoke to me. Pikelet is the perfect antagonist and Tim Winton is so lyrical. When he describes moments in the surf my whole body just responded with a deep feeling of I know that I just didn't have the words for it - Thank goodness Tim Winton does. ( )

Loved it - captured character, time and place in that magical Winton way. What a great first read for the club. ( )

In the first part of the book, the narrator, Bruce Pike, recounts his boyhood friendship with Ivan "Loonie" Loon. As young boys, Pikelet and Loonie dare each other to perform dangerous stunts in the local river. When they become teenagers, they take up surfing and meet a former professional surfer named Sando, who leads them to new levels of recklessness. The novel explores the boys' youthful urge to seek out the farthest limits of courage, endurance and sanity in an attempt to escape the ordinariness of their lives. The grown man initiates the boys into a kind of Spartan ethos, a regimen of risk and challenge, where they test themselves in storm swells on remote and shark-infested reefs, pushing each other to the edges of endurance, courage, and sanity. But where is all this heading? Why is their mentor’s past such forbidden territory? And what can explain Sando's American wife Eva’s peculiar behavior?
The second half of Breath is concerned with the disintegration of Pikelet's friendship with Sando and Loonie and his developing relationship with Eva. ( )

Blown. A. Way. ( )